The longtime Occidental space that housed Hazel restaurant (3782 Bohemian Highway) is set to reopen this spring as a white-tablecloth destination under chef James Millar. The unexpected pairing: Millar, formerly chef de cuisine at the upscale Violetto in Napa Valley, has been tapped by Todd and Erica Kniess, the owners of the fast-growing Acme Burger chain.

“This is a passion project,” said Erica Kniess of the restaurant, which departs sharply from the couple’s burger-focused business. The Kniesses do not plan to oversee daily operations; instead, they remain focused on their five existing fast-casual locations, with additional expansion in Sonoma County under consideration.

Todd Kniess is part of a broader shift among classically trained chefs moving from fine dining into more casual formats. Since opening the original Acme Burger in Cotati in 2019, the couple has expanded to Santa Rosa and Petaluma, building a menu around a $7.65 single burger with optional additions like Point Reyes blue cheese, truffle butter and caramelized onions.

Millar and his wife, Breckin VanRaalte, will lead the new venture, Bohemian Bistro, which will offer prix-fixe menus rooted in French technique with global influences. Current plans include five- and seven-course menus served Thursday through Sunday evenings, along with a Wednesday “locals night” featuring more affordable à la carte options.

Additional details are expected in the coming weeks.

The post Local Chefs Breathe New Life Into Former Hazel Space in Occidental appeared first on Sonoma Magazine.

Halfway through 2025, I’m ready to go out on a limb and name one of the year’s best Sonoma County restaurant openings: Poppy.

The newest branch on The Girl & The Fig’s family tree, the restaurant is the culmination of founder Sondra Bernstein and John Toulze’s 25 years of travels through the backroads of rural France.

And though Sonoma County is newly awash in French cuisine — with the additions of restaurants like Petaluma’s Bijou and Brigitte Bistro, Healdsburg’s Lagniappe and Santa Rosa’s Augie’s — Poppy captures the fresh, honest simplicity of French countryside cooking, using seasonal ingredients and classic techniques.

While that may sound like a familiar refrain, I find that too many American chefs tend to overcomplicate things, layering sauces, seasonings and garnishes instead of just letting a perfect strawberry, stalk of asparagus or piece of fish stand on its own.

Gobs of good butter don’t hurt, either.

Time to change

“It’s a return to where we started. Simple, ingredient-driven food,” said Toulze, managing partner of Poppy and The Girl & the Fig restaurant and catering.

For more than 25 years, the groundbreaking Cal-French Sonoma restaurant Toulze and Bernstein established in 1997 has reliably served their signature fig and arugula salad, moule frites, flounder Meunière and destination-worthy peach panzanella with pork belly.

These days, The Girl & The Fig practically runs itself, Toulze explained. Locals and visitors have their favorites and the menu rarely changes outside of seasonal specials. Toulze has handed over the kitchen to longtime chef Jeremy Zimmerman and Bernstein stepped back from business operations in 2021.

The duo has also launched several spinoffs over the years, including the Suite D event space, the Fig Rig food truck, the Estate restaurant at the former General’s Daughter and the Fig Café, which has now been transformed into Poppy.

“It had a wonderful run,” said Toulze of the Fig Café. “It was time to change.”

The new vibe

During a brief closure last winter, Toulze and his team refreshed the space, opening part of the kitchen to the dining room, installing cozy window banquettes (the best seats in the house), painting the molding a smoky gray and adding natural elements like bamboo-patterned wallpaper.

Though I’m rarely wowed by restaurant art, Bernstein has created stunning AI-assisted illustrations of wild California poppies that reinforce the restaurant’s sense of place in Sonoma Valley.

The Fig Café’s eclectic menu of mussels, pizzas and burgers has been replaced by dishes like crispy roast chicken, sumptuous seasonal salads, and fresh poached eggs with morel mushrooms that feel deeply rooted in both Southern France and Sonoma County.

Toulze is now a constant presence in the Poppy dining room, greeting longtime customers and carefully directing the flow of service during these formative early weeks.

“This is what keeps you going after 30 years — it’s being motivated by creativity, food and creating an experience for guests,” he said.

Not everything is perfect yet — and that’s to be expected. The menu is evolving constantly, shaped by customer feedback, seasonal ingredients and how each dish lands with diners.

“One customer says it was the worst trout they ever had, and another says it’s the best,“ Toulze remarked with a shrug, taking it all in stride.

A bold statement

I’m going out on a limb to call Poppy a top contender for Best Restaurant Openings of 2025 (the list comes out in late December) because of a handful of dishes already defining it as a restaurant to watch — a perfect spring salad, a crave-worthy roast chicken and a standout bread service.

I visited twice (with a third trip planned) and was surprised by how much the menu had evolved in just a week — a mix of tiny transformations and major improvements that felt exciting and unexpected.

With a clear mission, a strong team and a passion for ingredient-driven French cuisine, Poppy is off to a promising start.

Best bets

Lean into the Pain: A good baguette isn’t hard to find — but a great one, with shaved Parisian ham, is my personal grail quest. Poppy’s Service de Pain, or bread service, fills my cup and then some. The wheat stalk-shaped pain d’epi ($5 half, $9 full) is a natural pull-apart for dipping into housemade cultured butter, creamy duck liver ($8), bone marrow ($6), country pate ($8) — or all of the above. The housemade ham ($16) is worth the splurge for its delicate, fat-laced ribbons of meat.

Asparagus Salade ($18): Spring on a plate. Mild asparagus spears, tart-sweet Watmaugh strawberries and lemon curd dressing form a color wheel of flavor that checks every box for me. The ingredients will change with the seasons, but this visual stunner will be a favorite food memory for years.

Poulet Rôti ($32): “I can make better chicken at home” is a familiar diner refrain — and usually true. Not here. This airplane cut (boneless breast and drumette) comes with crackling skin, juicy meat and a rich jus made with nutty vin jaune (yellow juice from Savagnin grapes). Perfection.

Short Rib Confit ($54): This one is worth a conversation. It’s not the fall-off-the-bone braised short rib you’re used to. Instead, the rib is slowly cooked in a water bath, then finished in fat — or “confit.“ The addition of bone marrow and red wine sauce amplifies the beefy, fatty richness to borderline excess — it almost felt like nibbling on a stick of butter. I didn’t hate it, but after an appetizer, bread and wine, it felt like too much of a good thing.

Oeuf aux Champignons ($18): Anything with morels gets my attention. This simple poached egg, served with a ring of parsley, fat morels and mushroom cream sauce, didn’t disappoint. Save some bread to mop it all up.

Poisson Cru Frais ($22): This dish may look like a wallflower, but it’s a flavor bomb. I’m usually against defiling delicately flavored raw kanpachi with anything but a bit of sesame oil or thin grapefruit slices. But here, the addition of chili-citrus crema enhances rather than overpowers the fish. Diced fried pumpkin seeds and ice plant leaves give a satisfying crunch.

Truite du Mont Lassen ($33): Tender Mt. Lassen trout trumps salmon every time in my book. The tender pink flesh mimics the texture of ocean-raised salmon, but with milder flavor and perfect flake. This version is served with nutty romesco sauce, plump Romano beans and fingerling potatoes.

Choux au Craquelin ($10): We all have that extra dessert pouch in our stomachs, right? This baseball-sized puff pastry is filled nearly to bursting with velvety espresso mousse. Just, yes.

Coming soon: Poppy will launch weeknight prix fixe dinners in the coming months, offering a three-course meal with wine for $65.

13690 Arnold Drive, Glen Ellen, 707-938-2130, poppyglenellen.com

You can reach Dining Editor Heather Irwin at heather.irwin@pressdemocrat.com. Follow Heather on Instagram @biteclubeats.

The post With Poppy Restaurant in Glen Ellen, Longtime Restaurateurs Return to Their Roots appeared first on Sonoma Magazine.

Pop-up stars Bayou on the Bay will offer deep-South dining at Marla Santa Rosa Bakery and Cafe on Wednesday and Thursday of alternating weeks.

Following a strong start on April 16 and 17 with their Gumbo and Grits Get Together, their April 30 and May 1 dinners will feature Cajun tamales. Look for ongoing dinners that will (hopefully) include their farmers market mainstays, such as gumbo, po’boys, beignets and Cal-Cajun twists like blackened catfish tacos, barbecued mac and cheese and Bayou burgers.

The dinners are from 5-8 p.m. at 208 Davis St. in Santa Rosa. Follow chefs Bradley and Mandy Wildridge at instagram.com/bayou.onthebay.

New Sebastopol Mexican Spot

A new Mi Pueblo restaurant will open at the former Sonoma Burger in May. Located at 173 Pleasant Hill Ave. N., the restaurant is part of a familiar chain of Northern California Mexican restaurants in Cotati, Petaluma, Santa Rosa and Windsor. No opening date has been announced.

You can reach Dining Editor Heather Irwin at heather.irwin@pressdemocrat.com. Follow Heather on Instagram @biteclubeats.

The post Cajun Fusion Pop-up Dinners off to a Strong Start at Popular Santa Rosa Bakery appeared first on Sonoma Magazine.

The only things missing from Lauren Kershner’s vision of a Victorian-inspired salon are the swish of crinolines and hissing gaslights.

Soft lighting, broody paneled walls in pine needle green, velvet sofas in conversational arrangements and an upright piano set the scene inside the century-old Pagani family winery at Jack London Village in Glen Ellen.

The property’s history reaches back generations, first as home to the Miwok, and Spanish missionaries, then as a sawmill built by General Vallejo in 1839. Later, it became a gristmill (the grinding stones and water wheel remain), a distillery and a winery. Local author Jack London might have been seen strolling past when Arnold Drive was little more than a walking path.

After several restaurants came and went from the space, it stood empty for several years, gathering cobwebs until 2020, when Kershner embraced the possibilities of the raw space and got to work remodeling.

In 2022, Kershner opened Songbird Parlour as a hub for her catering company, private events, dinner parties and semi-regular pop-ups with guest chefs — but it was not officially open to the public.

In November 2024, Kershner added restaurateur to her lengthy list of projects, including Goodness Gracious catering and Valley of the Moon Kombucha.

“We put together this beautiful space, and we wanted to have people here five days a week. We want to get the community in here,” said Kershner of the five-night-a-week restaurant she operates with partner Kenneth De Alba.

Walking into Songbird is literally a walk through the history of Sonoma Valley as diners make their way through a hallway museum leading to the restaurant. Photos from the historical society celebrate residents, including culinary writer M.F.K. Fisher, World War II general Henry “Hap” Arnold and the Indigenous peoples who lived on the land for thousands of years. Even Hunter S. Thompson, who lived briefly in Glen Ellen, gets a nod.

Inside, the 42-seat restaurant opens to a soaring ceiling and open kitchen where executive chef Eric Moulton creates a seasonal, hyperlocal menu with “posh yet approachable dishes,” according to Kershner.

That includes a recent dish with prawns, coconut curry and Nardello chile.

“Oak Hill farm had a ton of Jimmy Nardello peppers, so it landed on our menu,” said Kershner of the mild frying peppers that arrived in America in the pocket of an Italian immigrant. Now part of Slow Food’s Ark of Taste, they’re considered an endangered heritage food, though in Sonoma County, they seem to be on menus from Petaluma to Cloverdale.

“We don’t come with a dish until we see what the farm has,” Kershner said.

Songbird’s menu is well-curated, with just a handful of flavorful, expertly crafted dishes rather than a laundry list to please every palate. Plant-forward dishes are well represented with Sunray Farms ‘leaves and things’ salad ($16), pickled beets with Grazin’ Girl Gorgonzola ($18) and caramelized winter squash with figs and Cabernet vinaigrette ($18).

While I only had a chance to try about half the menu, some dishes are calling me back for a return visit — halibut crudo with white peach and makrut lime granita ($24) or seared salmon with vadouvan (French curry) brown butter ($36). The regionally-focused wine list includes boutique producers Hill of Tara, Idle Cellars and Toje.

“We’re creating a space where people can indulge their passions, whether for food, wine, music or simply connecting with others,” Kershner said.

Best Bets

Caramelized Cassidy Ranch winter squash, figs in Cabernet vinegar, $18: Sweet crescents of squash sweetened by pomegranate seeds and seasonal figs make winter’s long, dark nights a little brighter.

Head-on prawns, $28: I usually shy away from food that puts up a fight — or threatens to stab me with its antennae, but these crustaceans came mostly peeled with most of the work already done. Pop off the head, give it a little suck and drench the body with creamy coconut curry sauce and Nardello chile sauce. A squeeze of grilled lemon brings the dish entirely into focus.

Fried farm potatoes and leeks, $14: Husky wedges of fried potatoes get a crispy dusting of fried leeks and esplette (a fruity, dried chile with just a hint of heat) from Seven Moons Farms. A fat smear of tomato aioli cools everything down.

Duck confit, $38: This pared-down riff on cassoulet includes a nicely cooked thigh and leg with crisp skin and moist meat that can only come from the confit process. The salty duck gets a sweet kick from pear mostarda, and earthy beluga lentils ground the dish.

Espresso braised pork belly, $22: Striations of crisp meat and fat make pork belly one of my favorite dishes. The dish is almost perfect, glazed with an espresso and red wine reduction and atop a fat pile of maitake mushrooms. I’d love to see the fat rendered more and the skin crispier for that perfect bite of savory, umami-laden belly.

Open from 3:30 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday to Sunday. Reservations suggested.
14301 Arnold Drive, Suite 3, Glen Ellen, 707-343-1308, songbirdparlour.com.

You can reach Dining Editor Heather Irwin at heather.irwin@pressdemocrat.com. Follow Heather on Instagram @biteclubeats.

The post Victorian-Inspired Songbird Parlour in Glen Ellen Offers ‘Posh Yet Approachable Dishes’ appeared first on Sonoma Magazine.

Food is love. Food is happiness. And now, food is medicine?

Eating healthy, whole, unmodified and unprocessed food to heal our bodies isn’t exactly a new idea, but it’s one that’s coming back to the forefront as diabetes, heart disease and cancers related to sugary, fatty Western diets become epidemic.

And that’s the mission behind The Pharmacy cafe — thoughtfully-crafted foods that nourish and enrich, rather than deplete our bodies.

“I’m not a doctor,” says co-owner Kim Bourdet, “But people just don’t understand what’s in their food and drinks — where it’s coming from or what’s going into their body,” she adds.

That’s why she and Chef Jennifer McMurry (formerly of Viola Pastry Cafe) have created a breakfast and lunch menu of food with a conscience. Not-so-ironically at a former pharmacy at Brookwood and Sonoma Ave.

Brilliant yellow egg salad sandwiches are made with rEvolution fermented sourdough bread (a BiteClub fave), eggs from White Whale Farm (the owners of Pug’s Leap cheese) and Jennifer’s own lemon aioli. There’s water kefir from The Kefiry on tap, Bella Rosa coffee and espressos, lassis made with turmeric, ginger and homemade organic almond milk (now an obsession of mine), a luxurious chop salad with house-roasted chicken, or tiny jars of lemon curd with meringue. In the morning, carrot loaf with homemade cream cheese is a favorite, and the carrot cake with cream cheese? Decadent without the sugar high.

Kim and Jennifer look for producers with passion, ingredients without GMOs, gluten-free alternatives and portions that satisfy rather than stuff.

It’s not diet food, mind you, but food that you can feel good about eating.

Right now, everything is grab-and-go, making it a perfect quick pitstop that won’t leave you with an afternoon of regret. The duo plan for special dinners, nutrition and cooking classes and much more. Next week, I’ll be doing a deeper dive into The Pharmacy and other “healing foods” restaurants popping up in Sonoma County, so stay tuned.

The Pharmacy, 990 Sonoma Ave. #1, Santa Rosa, open 7a.m. to 3p.m. weekdays, closed Saturday and Sunday.

The post The Pharmacy Cafe Opens in Santa Rosa appeared first on Sonoma Magazine.

Written by Heather Irwin for BiteClubEats.

The owners of Santa Rosa’s popular Naked Pig Cafe have a new project in the works called Flower and Bone, slated to open in Santa Rosa in summer 2016.

Partners Dalia Martinez and Jason Sokach are converting an early 20th century mercantile building at 5th St. and Humbolt into unique restaurant that’s going to feature a “preserve-centric menu”, according to Martinez. That means expanding out the couple’s passion for canning, pickling and fermenting, much of which is already on the Naked Pig’s breakfast, brunch and lunch menus.

“There are only a handful of restaurants in the world that are doing what we are with food preservation and we are happy to give Santa Rosa that edge,” said Martinez, who is an avid forager and gardner.

The menu concept, according to the couple, will be international; inspired by ancient traditions and techniques and feature clay oven cooked, local pasture-raised meat, handmade dumplings, bone broths, dainty starters with house made spiked sodas & punch, farm fermented ciders and low-proof vegetable juice cocktails. The restaurant launch with a series of dinners.

A collection of preserved products will be featured in a large utilitarian library-esque cabinet complete with a wooden ladder, she said. The expanded commercial kitchen at the restaurant (the kitchen at Naked Pig is impossibly tiny) will allow them to increase production of certain preserves for sale, with the rest reserved for the restaurants.

“Our intention is to continue providing Sonoma County and all it’s visitors with pure food—handmade, small batch and unique,” said Martinez.

The post Coming Soon to Santa Rosa: Flower and Bone appeared first on Sonoma Magazine.